Thursday, June 26, 2008

Directed Blog #2: Donatello's Mary Magdalene




Donatello's Mary Magdalene was made for the Baptistry of Florence. Mary Magdalene was portrayed as waste away by her fastings and abstinence. I'm always interested in Mary Magdalene although i'm not religious to any specific religion. What i knew about her was as a prostitute. Also, there's been lots of sayings about her; some claims she was married to Jesus; however, of course the bible rejects such explanation. The Bible states that Jesus helped her from being possessed by seven demons. This is considered as transformation and purification. I think how her life transformed and changed is mystical. And from modern thinking, about how Jesus exorcised the demons should be considered as some kind of psychological treatment. Mary Magdalene hardly kept the only possibility of redemption with such sinful name and life, and with the belief of "understanding of love."Love can not only make the sinner reconcile, it can also make people reconcile in moral. the artpiece that makes me feel shock in the similar way is Edvard Munch. He had a rough life. Through several years, at the same time when he finally became famous, because of his addiction in drinking, he became extremely sick and unhealthy and he also fell in love with a married woman. This relationship made him suffer for long time and made him become very pessimistic in love and relationship, which such pessimism was shown in his paintings. He never stopped thinking about problems related to live, death and sex. He never stopped thinking, experiencing and paintings. Everything he had gone through helped him come up with the topic of his paintings: "Frieze of Life." Munch was also a poet. He wrote everything he sensed, felt, or some thinkings in poem. His painting focuses on people's psychological dimension, especially his. Until his late life, he never stopped exploring human mind. In his late life, he had many self-portraits. I like one portrait which he stood in front of the window in his house facing us. The snow scene outside the window makes people feel his loniliness in his late life; but i also think he actually faced this loniliness.

3 comments:

Orielle said...

I like how you compared Donatello's version of Mary Magdalene to the art piece, Edvard Munch. Indeed, both art pieces are similar because of how the painters show pessimism.

cinapoli said...

Fabulous example!

cinapoli said...

but orielle...do they really show pessimism?